The biggest supermarket chain in the UK, Tesco plans to follow the lead of financial and other service sector companies and sack British workers, preferring cheaper Indian workers instead.

The news has been tucked away in the business pages of a few broadsheets over the past 24 hrs and the leak has caused embarrassment at British largest grocers which last financial year boasted profits of £1.6Bn, a rise of 21.9% on the previous year. To put that astronomical figure into context, this pre-tax figure shows that the supermarket chain where "every little helps" made a staggering profit of £50.74 every SECOND!

Tesco PLC is clearly not short of a few bob yet their desire to cut costs to compete in the never ending supermarket wars, has led to the decision to slash over 400 jobs in their IT support and invoice processing centres in Dundee, Cardiff and Welwyn Garden City. Last year Tesco started work on a new support centre in the hi-tech southern Indian city of Bangalore where it already employs 350 support professionals. Top-flight Indian graduates earn about £3,000 a year, a tenth of what an experienced accountant or IT professional working for the likes of Tesco could earn in the UK. The jobs to be cut range from data-entry assistants up to accountants and IT support professionals.

Tesco PLC is following dozens of other British companies who have in the past two years pulled the plug on British jobs and relocate those tasks to India. Other well known names in the hall of shame include:


Abbey National: In October 2003 the bank announced it was transferring office jobs such as payroll.

Aviva (Insurance giant)

Axa (Insurance giant)

British Airways

BT: The phone giant caused a storm when it opened two directory inquiry call centres abroad. It plans to soon have 2,200 staff in India, each earning an average wage of £3,000 a year

ebookers: The online travel company said in September 2003 it is tripling its New Delhi staff to 2,000.

HSBC: The banking giant now employs 8,000 people in India, China and Malaysia.

Lloyds TSB: By the end of 2004 new bank account and credit card applications will be processed by 1,500 staff in Bangalore and Hyderabad.

Prudential (insurance)

Powergen: The electricity giant said in August 2003 it was moving out 300 call centre jobs to cut costs.